Chapter 8

After being stunned for a moment, Feng Xiaotian started to take action. He was already very familiar with computer knowledge, and now what he needed to do was to try to see if he could find a foreign network interface through his own skills.

Half an hour later, Feng Xiaotian finally found a feasible path, but he was somewhat hesitant, as this only path belonged to the military. Feng Xiaotian was only fourteen years old, and if the military discovered this, how could he bear the consequences?

After hesitating for a long time, curiosity finally overcame his fear. Feng Xiaotian operated the computer and quietly infiltrated the military system. The system was very quiet; it was New Year's Eve, and there were probably few on-duty personnel. Thus, Feng Xiaotian succeeded. He easily controlled a military computer through remote commands and then used this computer to send a port connection request to the international internet.

In fact, this military system was only used for testing. It was part of a military-civilian cooperation project to detect potential issues in the connection between the national network and the international internet. Feng Xiaotian, without anyone knowing, actually became the first civilian tester.

Since the military was involved, the network's configurations were quite good. Not long after Feng Xiaotian sent the request, his computer showed that he had successfully connected to the internet. Suppressing his inner excitement, he finally entered the international internet.

At this moment, in the National Computer Security Center in Seattle, USA, Professor Vincent, as the main person in charge of the center, was doing his daily work. What was his main job? It was simple: to handle threats that appeared on the internet at any time.

It was 9:30 AM in the United States. Professor Vincent sat in his spacious and bright office, leisurely drinking coffee. He held a newspaper with a prominent headline: "Hacker Strikes Again! Causing Major Losses!"

Below the headline, the newspaper provided a detailed report: "At 3:00 PM yesterday, a hacker infiltrated the internal network of General Electric, causing the company to shut down for four hours. According to a General Electric official, the hacker's actions have resulted in nearly eight million dollars in losses. General Electric issued a statement strongly condemning the hacker's actions and will assist relevant departments in tracking down the hacker."

Professor Vincent took a sip of coffee, his face calm. He had already known about this yesterday. It was with his help that General Electric finally returned to normal. The hacker who appeared yesterday was quite formidable. Professor Vincent's team spent over an hour to crack the virus software the hacker had implanted. As for the hacker's whereabouts, who knew where he had gone.

Professor Vincent put down the newspaper and shook his head with a bitter smile. The current state of network security was becoming increasingly serious. Most computer experts were hidden in the civilian sector and rarely joined national security departments. This made his job increasingly difficult. In the past, he had time to take a break and go out to enjoy the scenery, but now, the amount of work he needed to handle every day made him feel overwhelmed. Professor Vincent had already been at the security center for over a month without returning home. If this continued, he didn't know if his wife would file for divorce.

Professor Vincent sat in his chair and stretched lazily. Such a leisurely moment was rare. He wanted to take this opportunity to relax. Just as he was enjoying this leisure, his secretary rushed in and reported, "Professor, we have just detected a network signal from China. The other party has already entered the internet through the only port. What do you think we should do about this?"

Professor Vincent was taken aback and said, "The Chinese have entered the internet? Their testing time is supposed to be from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Why are they out now?"

As he spoke, Professor Vincent got up and followed his secretary to the monitoring room. There were eight large supercomputers here. At the moment, a staff member was sitting in front of a computer screen, closely watching the situation. Professor Vincent approached the person and asked, "Rocky, how is the situation?"

Rocky replied, "This guy has been wandering around the internet, as if he's looking for something."

Professor Vincent said nothing more. He stared intently at the computer screen. After a few minutes, he laughed and said, "It seems this guy is just getting familiar with the internet. After all, he's Chinese, and seeing such a magical network world, he naturally feels amazed. Just leave him alone. As long as he doesn't do anything out of line, let him be."

After saying this, Professor Vincent turned and left. In his view, this person from a backward country was just a bumpkin. If he could pose a threat to the internet's security, it would be as unrealistic as a fairy tale from "One Thousand and One Nights." Therefore, Professor Vincent took no action and let the person wander around the network.

The person wandering around the network was, of course, Feng Xiaotian. As Professor Vincent said, Feng Xiaotian was indeed a bumpkin. Everything in the network was so novel, with all kinds of information available. Feng Xiaotian was like a sponge, continuously absorbing useful information. Whenever he saw something interesting, he would stop to ponder it carefully.

Originally, Feng Xiaotian wanted to learn some computer knowledge on the internet because he wanted to create an artificial intelligence system. However, he had long forgotten this goal. As he continued browsing various information, a news article caught his attention. It was about hackers.

Feng Xiaotian had some understanding of the term "hacker" and knew what these people did. To be honest, he himself could be considered a hacker to some extent, as he had entered the international network by controlling a military computer. Any unauthorized entry is considered illegal intrusion, and anyone who uses a computer to complete an illegal intrusion can be called a hacker.

Feng Xiaotian read the news about hackers, which was the same article Professor Vincent had read. Compared to Professor Vincent, Feng Xiaotian read it more carefully and had more thoughts.

There is no perfect thing in the world, and computer operating systems are no exception. True computer experts generally gain control of other computers by finding system vulnerabilities.

Some people also write their own cracking software to forcefully break through the defense systems of other computers. Trojan viruses and the like are related derivative products.